The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 74, No. 82, Ed. 1 Sunday, February 4, 1996 Page: 1 of 52
fifty two pages : ill. ; page 18 x 10 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Special Section 10-12-A
Senior Lifestyles
Check out the latest news,
features on senior citizens
BWflVefse.....2A Opinion ...... 4A On the UHl
SSsur.-:::::.4* Police continue search
ST:a I I for pair of robbery suspects
Wanda Orton:
School district's name
causes great debate
One for the books
Local drag racing team
makes Hall of Fame
®je Itoptotim H>un
Volume 74, No. 82
Telephone Number 422-8302
Sunday, February 4,1996
Baytown, Texas 77520
$1.00 Per Copy
Nature Center plans detailed
By CHRISTIAN MESSA
The Baytown Sun
When Wayne Gray was appoint-
ed to the newly formed Baytown
Parks Board in 1966, the organiza-
tion had an annual budget of
$50,000, and the city had just one
park.
Today, the board's yearly budget
has reached $1.75 million, and the
number of Baytown parks has
grown to 36.
Gray spoke about the Parks
Board and the latest recreational
projects around the city at the Bay-
town Woman’s Club meeting Fri-
day morning at the Goose Creek
County Club,
The pharmacist and Lee College
regent presented a slide presenta-
tion on the development of the
Baytown Nature Center at the old
Brownwood subdivision, located
off Bayway Drive via Schreck Av-
enue and overlooking Burnet and
Crystal bays.
As the area was prone to flood
and had been ravaged by Hurri-
cane Alicia, the Baytown City
Council developed a plan in 1983
to transform the neighborhood into
a nature center.
Arco Chemical Co helped fund
that transformation since it was re-
quired under a federal settlement
to develop new wetlands
Since earthen levees were
opened Iasi June to allow bay wa-
ters into the former neighborhood.
Gray said nature has begun to take
back the area.
Citizens urged to file taxes early
By iASON MOORE
The Baytown Sun
The deadline for employers to make 1995
earning information available to employees was
Wednesday, and the Internal Revenue Service is
urging taxpayers to use the information to file
taxes early.
Employers, banks and other businesses are re-
quired by law to have earning information, usu-
ally W-2 and 1099 forms, available to employ-
ees and former employees by jan 31.
The IRS is cautioning taxpayers to scrutinize
the information for any inconsistencies now and
contact employers who haven't sent the infor-
mation yet.
“If they're not cooperating, the IRS can help
get the W-2 or help reconstruct the informa-
tion." said Steve Yost, of the IRS's Southeast
Texas division.
Yost said it is especially important to file ear-
ly this year because less funding may cause the
IRS to cut some services as the April 15 filing
deadline approaches.
Feeling the chill of winter
P1W> ty Cum »*iyofUtmm
Aaron Morrill, 25, is homeless and
stands at the comer of 1-10 and
Garth Road looking for work. Mor-
rill, like many other homeless peo-
ple in the Baytown area, w.ll be
seeking refuge from the freezing
temperatures that have hit south-
east Texas.
Baytown-area homeless
brace for a tough night
By iASON MOORE and JIMMY BAGENT
lhe Baytown Sun
No one knows better than Aaron Morrill
exactly how cold it will get this weekend.
That’s because Morrill, 25, is homeless
and will be sleeping outside when tempera-
tures fall to the teens.
Although there are several homeless
shelters in Baytown, most are full or almost
full this weekend as more people come in
from the cold. But the weather doesn’t mat-
ter, Morrill said. He’s used to sleeping in
the cold and rain.
“What else am I going to do? I don’t got
another source. I’m used to it, you know.
I’m homeless,” said Morrill.
A native of Los Angeles whose only
family is a sister he doesn’t speak to, Mor-
rill got kicked out of high school for repeat-
ed absences and has since been looking for
odd jobs — most recently in Baytown.
When he’s not working, Morrill stands at
intersections in Baytown holding a sign
reading “Stranded. Hungry. Need Work.
God Bless.” At night, he bundles up in a
wooded area near Interstate 10 with the few
blankets he can carry around with him.
He doesn’t like the life he leads, but also
doesn’t know how to change it.
"I just want to work, you know. Nobody’s
hiring right now, so I’m just trying to make
it.... At least I’m not stealing or robbing
anybody,” Morrill said.
Drifters and outcasts like Morrill seem to
have become a permanent part of the urban
landscape in large cities like Houston —-
but homelessness is a still a relatively new
phenomena in Baytown and Mont Belvieu
Morrill is one of dozens of men and
women eking out an existence on area
streets.
Charlie’s story
At one time, Charlie had a job and a
bright outlook on life.
Now, he’s just doing good to survive.
Charlie, who declined to give his last
name, calls the underpass at Interstate 10
and Highway 146, just south of Mont
Belvieu, home.
“When you’re homeless, you’re homeless
— there’s not much you can do about it but
the best you can and hope you survive,”
said Charlie as he sipped from a cup of hot
chocolate in a truckstop. “1 had a job and a
home once like most people, but I became
disabled and couldn’t work anymore. Tliat’s
when my life began to go downhill.”
Now he’s faced with another problem —
how to keep warm over the weekend. “I’ll
just put on as many clothes as I can and
hope I don’t get frostbite,” he said.
Charlie spends most of his days at the in-
tersection advertising for work. He said by
performing odd jobs here he’s able to make
enough money to stay alive.
'ik-
I
;•
Ptooi by Cam I’lytx-Nawrwi
Patrick Gorrell, left, and Richard McDaniel of the city of Baytown's Public Works De-
partment prepare to unload sand on icy roadways throughout the city on Friday.
“If I don’t have any money then I don’t
eat,” he said. “There’s many a night that I’ll
go to bed hungry and cold. I just hope 1
don’t have to go to bed hungry this week-
end — it’s gonna be pretty dam cold out."
A sign of hope
According to Bob Corbett, coordinator of
the Bay Area Sheltering Arms, most of
Baytown’s homeless population are people
simply down on their luck and just trying to
make it.
“A lot of people think they’re just lazy
bums," Corbett said. “It has been my expe-
rience that the majority of them are not.”
Corbett said the homeless are particularly
susceptible to the cold because they can’t
escape “simple exposure to the elements.”
Corbett said that like most shelters, Shel-
tering Arms’ residents must abide by cer-
tain rules. If unemployed, they have to
spend their day looking for a job. If they
have a job, they have to put 75 percent of
their earnings into a savings account for
when they eventually leave.
But this weekend Corbett will have to
turn people away not because of rules but
because of space.
Because Baytown doesn't keep any sta-
tistics concerning the homeless, Corbett
said ills up to the shelters to deal with soci-
ety’s problem.
“We just don’t want to admit that there’s
a problem with homelessness. It doesn’t
mean we’re a bad community. In fact, what
matters is how the community deals with
these problems,” Corbett said.
Weather
forces
cancellation
of events
Due to freezing temperatures
and the possibility of icy condi-
tions on area roadways, there
have beem cancellations and
rescheduling of events that were
planned ar <und the area this
weekend
Youths who were planning to
try out for youth baseball and
softball teams this weekend will
do so at a later time, since try-
outs and sign-ups for both Little
League baseball and softball
have been canceled
The Bayt' Central Little
League try-, j -ut were to be
held Satuiday ai the Central Lit-
tle League Park on Garth Roud
have been canceled and will be
held at a later time. Softball try-
outs for girls fast-pitch softball at
the Wayne Gray Sports Complex
have been rescheduled for Feb.
10 at the same location.
Also canceled and reset was
the tag-in for market swine and
lambs that will be shown in the
Baytown Youth Fair. The tag-in
was rescheduled for Tuesday and
Thutsday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
at the Baytown Youth Fair-
grounds on North Main.
The St. Emily United
Methodist Women’s fish dinner
that was to be held at St. Emily
United Methodist Church has
been rescheduled to 10:30 a.m.
on Feb. 10.
The Sweetheart Tasting Bee
put on by the First United
Methodist Church’s Methodist
Women has been canceled and
will be held next week.
Weather
Saturday: Continued cloudy
and cold. High in low 30s. Low in
the low 20s Saturday night.
Sunday: Partly cloudy with
highs near 40.
Weather art by Megan Hill.
15*
w‘ V
l ' <,'(1,9
i i * a i # , \
Attorney explains importance of elder laws
By MAINE van WIJK
lhe Baytown Sun
Although many people refuse
to think of entering a nursing
home after retirement and prior to
their death, statistics show that
people of retirement age should
invest in nursing home care, local
attorney Pi-Yi Mayo told mem-
bers of the Kiwanis Club on
Thursday.
“Eighty-five percent of the
members of the retired popula-
tion believe they are covered by
Medicare when they go into a
nursing home,” said. “That is not
true. Only about one percent of
Medicare covers nursing home
care.”
Mayo began studying elder law
in 1989 when his grandmother
became ill with Alzheimer’s dis-
ease and risked losing her sav-
ings. “Not only could I not find a
lawyer, but I couldn’t find a pub-
lication about elder law,” he said.
Mayo said that a spousal im-
poverishment law keeps retired
citizens from losing their savings
when their spouse has to enter a
nursing home.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Dobbs, Gary. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 74, No. 82, Ed. 1 Sunday, February 4, 1996, newspaper, February 4, 1996; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1020860/m1/1/: accessed July 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.